


A Taste of Paradise

by undieshogun



Series: Crossing [4]
Category: Fire Emblem Heroes, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Angst, F/M, Female My Unit | Reflet | Robin, Mentions of Drowning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-02-07
Packaged: 2019-10-23 21:49:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17691716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/undieshogun/pseuds/undieshogun
Summary: Takumi and Robin sit on the beach and dream of a perfect world.





	A Taste of Paradise

**Author's Note:**

> i really love robin/takumi as a pairing, i have no explanation for it. please be aware of the content warnings! also uuhhhhhhhhh sorry in advance. enjoy.....? 
> 
> you can find and talk to me on twitter @shiirasagi

Summer.

Ocean waves the color of the sky thunder down upon the fine white sands of a nameless beach while the sun’s clean light stretches out and over the horizon, beaming with all the radiance and intensity of a Shine spell.

Takumi finds Robin towards the end of the beach, where the sand starts to turn into black, craggly rock that then climbs steadily up a jagged cliffside overlooking the blue expanse. The tactician sits on the shore near the water, just out of its reach, with her jacket cushioned beneath her.

She looks up as Takumi approaches, as if she’d somehow managed to hear his footsteps over the roar of the sea. Or perhaps she’d just caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye.

Either way, she smiles when she sees him. 

"Hey there, stranger," she says. "Doing okay?"

"Um…I'm fine," Takumi replies. "Everyone's already gone back to the castle. I saw you sitting out here…"

Robin moves over and pats the now vacant spot on her jacket. "I'll catch up. Got a minute?"

Takumi hesitates for a second, legs stuck.

"You don't have to be so nervous around me," Robin reassures him with a well-practiced ease. All it does is make guilt twinge in Takumi's chest.

"I know," he says, and he sits down next to her with feigned confidence. The warmth of the sand below seeps up through the jacket, and the ocean-sprayed air is cool against the heat gathering on his forehead and the back of his neck. An exhaustion he didn't know he was holding melts from his shoulders, and he lets out a small sigh.

"I remember you mentioning once that you loved the ocean. Kiran must have done everything she could to get you on this mission," Robin says.

"Probably…she's nice like that," Takumi agrees. "I don't really remember any of the battle, though, so I feel like I just got here."

"Me, too," Robin replies. "But it's nice getting to experience something like this for the first time, isn't it? Especially with someone else."

Takumi blushes at that, the excess heat causing a momentary dizziness that he tries his best to fight through. A gentle touch grounds him--Robin's hand on his. She laces their fingers together, and the two of them hold on tight, the jacket bunching up in Takumi's hand, as they both stare out into the sea.

It is vast and blue--equal to the sky, yet different. It storms like the sky and is endless like the sky, but it is so much closer--so much easier to get lost in. Takumi dreams of days spent floating on the surface of the water, alone, surrounded by that deep, mysterious blue and hearing nothing but the gentle lapping of the waves.

"Am I losing you?"

Takumi blinks and turns back towards Robin, who is watching him with a gleam of amusement in her eyes that masks the wariness he knows lies underneath.

"Sorry," he says. "I was thinking. Let's head back to the castle."

Robin chuckles softly at that, and she rubs a thumb soothingly over Takumi's knuckles. "Relax. No one's going to notice we're gone. And even if they do, they're not going to miss us."

Takumi's first reaction is indignation, but he knows that Robin is only being honest. He looks down at the line marking the highest point where the water has creeped up onto the shore, just inches away from their toes are pushed into the sand. "I kind of hate this place."

"I thought you loved the ocean."

"No, not…I meant this world. Askr."

"Then why don't you go home?"

"Because I..." Takumi trails off with a tired sigh. His shoulders ache, and there's a bandage around his arm hiding a fresh cut he doesn't remember getting. He changes the subject. "Have you talked to Chrom lately?"

"Not recently, no," Robin replies, taking the abrupt shift in conversation into stride. "He tends to avoid me these days, except to tell me every once in a while that he hasn't given up on me yet. Have you talked to your family?"

Takumi gives a vague shrug, unwilling to answer.

Robin's eyes are sad as she accepts his silence, but doesn't press. 

Takumi pulls his hand out of hers and hugs his legs, feeling stupid. "Sorry," he mumbles. 

"You don't have to be." 

"Yeah, but I am." 

Robin's grip is gentle but firm as she unravels him again and turns him around to face her. She holds his face in her hands, keeping his gaze locked on hers, and smiles a warm, patient smile. "None of this is your fault, Takumi." 

The words are so simple, and Robin has said them to him a thousand time before, yet each time it feels as if they've lifted a weight off his chest. He knows the weight will be back before long, but for now Takumi simply lets himself fall forward into Robin's arms, his face pressed into her shoulder, and takes a moment to breathe. 

Robin holds him tightly and brings a hand up to undo his hair tie and run her fingers soothingly through his hair. They share a brief moment of silence in which Takumi imagines Robin is thinking, just like he is, though he can't say about what. As time passes, he finds his focus falling in on the feeling of Robin's light touch against his scalp, her fingers tugging gently through the tangles in his hair. 

After a while, Robin says, "Can I ask you a weird question?" 

Takumi nods without looking up, the crown of his head brushing against Robin's chin. 

"In a perfect world, what would you be doing?" 

Takumi frowns, unsure of how to answer. "What do you mean?" 

"A world where everything is just how you like it," Robin explains. "What would it look like?" 

"...I guess anyone would say they'd want it to be a peaceful one," Takumi replies. "What kind of question is that? Are you testing me, or something?" 

Robin chuckles, her chest fluttering against Takumi's. "No, just curious. So what would your role be in this peaceful world? Where would you be?" 

"Mm...somewhere far away. So I couldn't hurt anybody." 

Robin goes silent at that, and Takumi gets the feeling he didn't give the right answer. "I'm doing it again, aren't I? Sorry." 

"No," is all Robin says. She keeps her arms tight around Takumi and sways a little, like she often does when she is contemplating something deeply. 

"What is it?" Takumi finally prompts when he can't take the silence anymore. Being so close to Robin under the heat of the sun is starting to stifle him, but he doesn't have the heart to pull away. 

"Nothing...I just wasn't expecting you to have the same answer as me." 

Takumi does pull away this time, sitting up to stare at Robin, who merely smiles vaguely in return. 

"Maybe in a truly perfect world, we would get to be somewhere far away together," she says. 

It does sound perfect, and Takumi would give anything to experience it even for just a moment. But he doesn't say any of this. "That would defeat the purpose behind it." 

"I think it would be worth it," Robin says. "It's nice, having someone there to share things with--even solitude." 

"I think it's pointless," Takumi mumbles, even as heat rises up the back of his neck. Part of him wishes Robin would stop saying such kind things to him--the other hopes she never stops. He glances over towards his bow, where it rests in the sand: the remnants of a shattered Fujin Yumi put back together again, bound by something dark into something whole, yet still broken all the same. He sighs. "Being here isn't curing us. It's just delaying the inevitable." 

"I know," Robin says, but there is a distant quality to her voice. She stares out towards the ocean, mesmerized by something Takumi can't see. The sun has begun to set, casting its deep, fiery red over the sands of the beach, and the red rings around the irises of Robin's eyes seem to glow under its influence. "Do you think if we kept swimming, we would eventually find a place for just the two of us?" 

Takumi closes his eyes and sighs. "Don't be ridiculous. We would just drown and then wake up again in Askr." 

Robin shrugs at that, though there is an inspired glint in her eye. "Probably. Maybe it would be worth a try, though." 

"I don't plan on adding 'dark, watery death' to the growing list of ways I've died since coming here," Takumi admits. "But tell me how it goes for you." 

Robin drops her head back and releases a loud bark of laughter into the air above them, drowned out halfway by the crash of a tall wave against the shore. Sea foam sprays against their cheeks, stinging their sun-worn skin. Takumi lets himself fall back with a _whump_  on the sand and stares up at the darkening sky. 

"I don't know if I'll be able to come back again," he says quietly. 

"Me neither," Robin replies. Slowly, she lowers herself next to him. The smell of blood and decay soaks into the air in the infinitesimally small space between them. 

"It feels like it takes longer each time, like I have to fight harder." 

"I know." 

They both fall into silence, and together they lie there for a long time, until the ocean breeze grows cold and the frigid sea water laps at their ankles. The sky darkens until the only light that remains is that of the full, round moon above them. 

Takumi sits up abruptly and turns to Robin. "How far do you think we would get?" 

Robin blinks up at him. "Huh?" 

"If we swam, how far do you think we would get?" 

"You said we would drown before we made it anywhere." 

"You said it would be worth a try anyway." 

Robin thinks for a second, then pushes herself up. She looks out towards the ocean, but there is only darkness. 

The rumble of the waves resounds deep in their chests and drowns out all else. 

"I'm a pretty strong swimmer," Robin says. 

"So am I," Takumi proclaims. 

At that, a tiny smirk curls at the corner of Robin's mouth. "Then I trust you won't fall behind." Then, she rises to her feet and, without any further remarks, begins shedding her clothes. 

"Wait--" Takumi sputters and scrambles to retrieve Robin's garments as she tosses them onto the sand. "We don't have to--" 

"Relax, there's no one here!" Robin laughs, reaching down and hauling Takumi to his feet with alarming strength. 

"But what if someone from the army comes to find us?" 

"Nobody cares, remember?" 

And it sparks in his chest again, that indignation at the whimsy in Robin's voice as the cruel truth spills from her lips, but it melts away under the warmth of her smile, the playful crinkle at the edges of her eyes. 

A few seconds pass, and then Takumi banishes the last of his hesitation and begins undoing his kimono. 

"That's more like it," Robin says, her tone rich with approval, and she takes the heavy cotton archer's garb from his hands and drops it onto the ground next to her jacket. Sand billows out, scattering onto the Fujin Yumi, but Takumi allows himself nothing more than a brief glance towards it before he and Robin are dashing into the water to meet the waves head on. 

The first one plows into them like solid rock, nearly knocking them off their feet, before passing over them like a fleeting embrace. Takumi's entire body instantly goes numb from the sharp, biting cold of it, but it doesn't bother him. Beside him, Robin is already wiping the water from her face and wading in deeper. 

"Stay close," she says, and Takumi complies. 

The water swells around them, making them weightless for but a few seconds each time, until they are nearly chest-deep. 

"Wait," Takumi says, his voice coming out weaker than he'd intended. His chest is tight, and his breathing comes up slightly short. 

Robin stops and turns to him. "What's wrong?" she asks, raising her voice over the roar of the ocean. "Do you want to go back?" 

"No, but, um...I just wanted you to know that this might be the last time we ever see each other again." 

Robin reaches out to grasp Takumi's shoulders and pulls him in close. "You don't know that," she breathes. Her grip is tight, fingertips digging into Takumi's skin with enough force to bruise. Takumi wishes she would hold on tighter.  

"It's just a feeling," he says, though he knows it's more than that.  

Takumi's gaze drifts towards Robin's chest, where dark skin is marred with patches of rough black wyrmscale. Many of the scales are twisted or broken, and blood crusts the areas where those jagged edges have scored across what human flesh remains on her body. Robin mirrors the gesture, and sees long, twisted scars and skin scorched black by magic. A miasma seeps from the edges of the scars, many of them formed over wounds that were undeniably fatal--a vessel kept alive through sheer force of malice. 

Unperturbed, Robin closes the distance between them to press a long, gentle kiss to Takumi's lips. Takumi instantly melts into the kiss, and in that moment that warm, tender contact between them is all he knows. They stay like that for a while, losing themselves in each other and in the swaying of the water around them, and neither of them notices how far the ocean has carried them until Takumi feels the ground drift away from below his feet and not return. 

"I bet it's just up ahead," Robin whispers against Takumi's mouth. 

Takumi swallows down the taste of salt and ash. "Let's keep going, then." 

And under the watchful eye of the full moon, the two of them turn and swim on through the black canvas of the vast ocean. 

**Author's Note:**

> this was written in a state of weird, manic, sad delirium so uhhh there's been minimal editing but hey a story is a story and i wanted to share it with you guys. thanks for bearing with me, and i hope you enjoyed!!


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